Demons hope to bedevil Española, end football team’s long losing skid
Santa Fe High sees Española game as big chance to snap 35-game losing streak
It was an early August afternoon when Miguel Medina retreated into his office to escape a downpour outside.
Sitting behind his desk, he clasped his hands behind his head and swiveled in his chair to look at the team’s schedule scrawled out on a dry-erase board a few feet to his left.
There, in Week 3, was the one game that should have had a giant red circle around it. He knew it, just as much as anyone else with a heartbeat did.
That might be an exaggeration, but the point is this: Friday’s nondistrict clash between Medina’s Española Valley Sundevils and visiting Santa Fe High is one that could, potentially, be of historical significance.
Santa Fe High (0-2) is looking to snap a 35-game losing streak that extends back to the middle of Barack Obama’s second term in the White House. The Demons haven’t walked off the field winners since Oct. 3, 2014, dropping 15 consecutive games on the road. Scattered in between is an average scoring differential of 37.2 points over nearly three dozen games. That includes 13 losses by shutout.
“I’m sure that’s the game everyone over there wants,” Medina said at the time. “In fact, I know it is.”
If anyone knows for certain, it’s Medina. He was Santa Fe High’s offensive coordinator last season before heading back to Española for his third tour of duty as a Sundevils coach. He missed the Demons’ final two games last season
while dealing with personal issues, but insists he still has a good relationship with the players and staff he left behind.
“Miguel is in the right place,” said Santa Fe High head coach Andrew Martinez. “He is where he needs to be.”
While the Demons have been preparing for Española Valley all week, it’s Medina who got the team’s attention.
After last week’s loss at Moriarty, a 20-12 setback that showed just how close the Demons are to a breakthrough, Martinez appointed assistant Joe Ray Anaya as his “Miguel Medina” of the week.
Martinez made him the scout team guru, running all of Medina’s plays out of the Wing-T spread he had the Demons using during his time there.
“I laid off of [Anaya] on that one,” Martinez said with a laugh. “I was going to make him wear red all week but I don’t want the kids to jump him after practice.”
As expected, Santa Fe High will start freshman Luc Jaramillo at quarterback and platoon in a few plays for junior Jackson Carey. Together they’ll run a more traditional offense than the one Medina is known for, the same one he’s installing this season at Española.
While a win would be a welcome reprieve from the never-ending “Streak” discussion, Martinez said the team’s primary concern in tasting victory and not chasing Rio Grande’s 40-game skid for the longest active streak in the state.
“Yeah, I guess I get tired of hearing about it at times,” Martinez said. “Within our team right now I just say we’re 0-2 right now and we’re probably with a quarter of the rest of the state at [0-2], so that’s where we’re at.”
As overwhelming as the streak can be, the simple fact is this: The current players don’t spend much time thinking about it. It is, Martinez said, an extension of the youth that pervades the entire roster. Just six seniors are on the team and the majority of the impact players are sophomores or freshmen.
“The way we approached this year is we’re young, it’s going to take us, you know, a little while to gel and put this together but we know, come mid-season and end of the year we’re going to be rolling pretty well and there’s a few opportunities out there for us,” he said.
What’s more, the attitude has changed dramatically here in Martinez’s second season at the helm.
“I just don’t see that same cloud,” Martinez said. “It just felt that there was a big cloud last year and I just don’t feel that this year. I don’t think the coaches feel it and the players don’t feel it because their attitude is we’re just going to win. We’re not going to lose; we’re here to win.”